A very useful website

I remember in the old days when I played in the band for Adass weddings, before Yumi’s band took over 99.9% of those gigs. Rav Beck was a lot younger and many times I was asked to see if my microphone could reach the head table. Rav Beck is a holy man, he barely looked up, and when I handed him the microphone it was as if it was a foreign object not to be used. He had no technique and didn’t realise that one had to speak directly into the microphone. Nevertheless, I noticed that even on a microphone stand, he was hesitant to get close to it. Some explained to me that it was a Tumeneh Keyleh. I didn’t understand, although these days I notice he at least holds it. Why do I mention this? I do so because for particularly Hungarian types where anything new is forbidden חדש אסור מן התורה so much of the modern world is not rehabilitative. Many examples about: a modern phone, is more likely to be used for sin; phones themselves were originally forbidden as they ’caused’ Lashon Hora. Eventually, things normalise, and solutions are found.

For me, just about everything I do, except if I’m in front of a Sefer, is something I can potentially turn into bad. It’s my view that there is a single world, an imperfect world, and our job is to turn חול into קדש and not run away from everything that may divert.

Can a person in Summer in Melbourne, Ripponlea, or Miami, or … not find themselves seeing women dressed for the weather, and not wearing thick black seamed Satmar socks? It’s unavoidable to the normal person, let alone those who work in the work force. It is for this reason that the ערוך השלחן stated that saying שמע in front of a woman who wasn’t wearing a head covering wasn’t an issue because we are used to this now as a norm.

I mention all this because my iPhone, as much as I love gadgets and technology, is so full of Torah, and a source of Torah, it’s literally mind-boggling. I hear and sometimes see Shiurim from people I never would have been exposed to. In my world, this IS Hashem’s plan. Like all of them, I could use the internet for the wrong things, and that is a real problem especially in closed societies (Rabbi Professor Twersky has spoken of this many times). For me, I sometimes feel it’s inappropriate to have my phone in the toilet in my pocket as it is so full of Kedusha!

With this in mind, here is yet another example of a wonderful website that can be used by those who appreciate it.

Check it out here and enjoy (if your Rov lets you). Remember, I am not Lehalacha or LeMaaseh. I just dilly dally at the edges of what interests me. By the way, those of you with iPhones check out this app. It’s an absolute beauty and is constantly being updated. I believe there is a google play version but it’s not as developed. I don’t know because I don’t use Android.

Enjoy making Kedusha use out of Tomei Keilim. The number of people who snuck TVs into their houses by asking the TV shop to place the TV into a refrigerator box so the neighbours wouldn’t realise was and is a regular ruse in Israel. TV cards were also highest per head sales in Yerusholayim. Go figure.

Ironically (is there such a word in Judaism) the first Lubavitcher to see opportunities to spread Torah through the internet was Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Kazen ז’ל. I used to be in touch with him as one of the few other Jews on the net before it was called the internet so to speak. Little was I to know that one day he would be the (late) Uncle of my daughter.

Computers are forbidden

Author: pitputim

I've enjoyed being a computer science professor in Melbourne, Australia, as well as band leader/singer for the Schnapps Band over many years. My high schooling was in Chabad and I continued at Yeshivat Kerem B'Yavneh in Israel and later in life at Machon L'Hora'ah, Yeshivas Halichos Olam.

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